


[fic] to be the seer, instead of the seen

by silly_cleo



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Female Character In Command, Female Protagonist, Female-Centric, Feminist Themes, Gen, POV Female Character, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:51:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3834253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_cleo/pseuds/silly_cleo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>aka Irene vs the Patriarchy</p>
            </blockquote>





	[fic] to be the seer, instead of the seen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xuixos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuixos/gifts).



The Sounissian historian Talis once said that “to be underestimated by an enemy is the greatest advantage a man can have.”

This may be true for men some or perhaps even most of the time, but Irene knows all too well that it is sometimes the _only_ advantage a woman may hope to have. Her reign, and in fact her entire life, have been full to the brim of people, almost exclusively men, underestimating her. In time, she finds it is an advantage that, while useful, is tiresomely easy to predict.

If she finds it so, she wonders how it must feel for those underestimating her. If the lack of learning curve is frustrating to her, how much more so for the opposition? Sometimes, as with Nahuseresh, she suspects it is not an advantage she will retain for more than one encounter. She will not dupe the Mede Empire so easily a second time, but over the years, it has seemed to her that there is apparently no limit to the number of ways and times her barons will underestimate her. Perhaps it is simply that she keeps finding new enemies to be underestimated by.

It crosses her mind frequently that both of these alternatives might be true, which always leaves her somewhat depressed.

 

*

Being underestimated may be an advantage, but being constantly so is tedious, or so it seems to Irene. Particularly when sovereignship, by its very nature, should mean one is always estimated to be as above everyone else as it is possible to be, short of the gods themselves.

She learned quickly the importance of image, of visuals. She knew the message she wished to send when she sat on her own throne the day after her first husband’s death. She also knew how far short of the mark that message fell.

She will use any and all resources she has to hand to achieve her ends, and that certainly includes her appearance.

She knows Attolia is not a religious country, but there is power in memory, and power in imagery. Her wardrobe, her bearing, become a copy of Hephestia. If Hephestia can rule the other gods alone, so can she rule Attolia.

The weight of the coronet across her brow is a promise to herself first, as well as to her people.

 

*

Before she married, every adviser she consulted (mainly Relius) and several she didn’t (her barons, her attendants, her people), made it clear to her that despite her best efforts, ruling her people alone might be fine for Hephestia, but not for mere mortals like the Queen of Attolia.

When she announced her betrothal to the Thief of Eddis, everyone from Relius on down made it clear to her he was a poor choice on all fronts. Even Gen thought himself ill fitted to the task. Privately, Irene agreed, knowing herself to be far better suited, barring the unfortunate reality that her barons were apparently incapable of being led by a woman.

The months after their wedding night feel, when she looks back on them, like a pitched battle between her and Ornon on one side, and Gen on the other. She might resent needing a consort with all her heart, no matter how much she loves him, but she is Attolia, and she will always put her country first.

The end result can only be described as a stalemate, or, when she is feeling more charitable, a compromise. Sometimes she wonders what she gained from the entire process, apart from a loving husband. Having persuaded her barons that Gen was neither a fool, nor her puppet, they united underneath her rule, and things carried on much as they had before. It galls her to know that in practical terms, nothing actually changes.

 

*

Some small part of her is almost constantly terrified by how much she adores Gen. It’s as if that part of her is unable to forget that one awful moment in Ephrata, when she was sure the gods had struck him down to punish her.

She twisted her ankle once, in a riding accident. Sometimes she remembers the burst of pain that shot through her whole body, and she almost finds herself flinching again, even though the ankle has been perfectly sound for years. Her fear for Gen grips her the same way at times. It almost makes it easier, in a way. She is practiced at patience, but Gen can try even hers, and she needs all the help she can get.

She knows even he underestimates her at times, tries to shield her from his continuing struggles at her court. She lets him, knowing he might be Attolis now but at heart he is still the Thief of Eddis, and needs to fool someone, sometimes.

 

*

And so it goes. She rules, Gen supports her. To all intents and purposes, Gen is the Annux responsible for uniting Attolia, Sounis and Eddis, and she sees to the actual running of Attolia, just as she always has. In that, she supports him. And so it goes.

From her infancy as a minor princess of the king’s second wife, she has been schooled to service of her country. Attolia is bred into her bones. She is Attolia. She may not have expected to become Queen, but she has been trained to take up the challenge placed before her, and she has always been a quick study.

Despite inheriting an Attolia whose populace had been decimated by plague, from a king too afraid of war to effect any real change; despite seeing her ascend to and hold her throne; despite the fact she would no longer consider them her enemies, her barons underestimate her still.

Her throne is finally secure now. Attolia, Sounis and Eddis will face the Mede empire’s invasion united when it comes, and none of her barons could say they could accomplish the same thing in her place, and yet she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are all privately waiting for her to formally, fully hand the reins over to Eugenides and start producing heirs.

As far as she’s concerned, they can keep on waiting.

 


End file.
